Total US potato stocks at 204.3 million hundredweight as of Feb. 1

Total potato stocks in the U.S. were at 204.3 million cwt, in comparison to 212.8 million cwt at the same time last year, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).

Potato stocks in Idaho on Feb. 1, 2020 totaled 73.0 million cwt. Disappearance of the Idaho crop to date was 57.9 million cwt, according the USDA-NASS.

Feb. 1 potato stocks in Oregon totaled 14.3 million cwt. Disappearance to date was 10.8 million cwt.

In Washington, Feb. 1 potato stocks totaled 46.5 million cwt. Disappearance to date totaled 56.6 million cwt.

• Nationally, the 13 major potato-producing states held 204 million cwt of potatoes in storage Feb. 1, 2020.
• Potatoes in storage accounted for 48% of the 2019 fall storage states’ production, compared to 51% from last year.
• Potato disappearance, at 219 million cwt, was down 4% from Feb. 1, 2019 for comparable states.
• Season-to-date shrink and loss, at 16.5 million cwt, was 6% higher than 2019.

Processors in Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon used 39.8 million cwt of potatoes for the season, up 1% from February 2019.

In Washington and other Oregon counties, 49.7 cwt of potatoes had been used by processors for the season, down 1% from the previous year. Processors in the eight major states used 113 million cwt of potatoes for the season, up 2% from February 2019.

Dehydrating usage accounted for 18.6 million cwt of the total potatoes processed.